Four Plus Four Equals Ten

Happenings of a large unorthodox family and the ramblings of me.

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If I know you, and you're reading this blog, you have two choices:

1) Feel free to pretend you haven't, should the contents be offensive, sensitive in nature, or just TMI (Too Much Information). OR2) Comment freely or talk to me face to face, and be prepared for further honesty and opinions.

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Oct 8, 2011

Jan 9, 2011

Sorely neglected blog... Seems like a fine place to record my attempts to "run".

I completed Week one of the Couch to 5K program tonight. It is not a New Years Resolution- I've been thinking about digging in again for some months, but had to come around to it when I was ready. It just turns out that that was last Tuesday.

Santa brought me some running pants and shirts. I checked out my tennis shoes, that are relatively new, at the local running store just to make sure I could wear them. I hate to make a financial investment to something if I'm not sure I'm going to keep at it- so the shoes checked out okay and if I keep at this running gig then I can spend the bucks to invest in a better pair later. It feels good to move my body and do something for me. And I love that the pants don't bunch up.

I was proud of myself for completing each of the three runs as directed- I was able to run (they really mean a heavy plodding sort of jog, right?) every time for the eight 60 second intervals. My shins and calves really hurt after that first run, but that has gotten better. I'm trying to stretch before and after. I think it helps. Tonight, I ran around the track just to see how far I was going for the whole workout and I actually walked/jogged 2 miles- not too bad. But I was very dizzy afterwards- had to sit for a while before i could drive home. Once at home, I had a lot of water some powerade and chicken- still dizzy. I'm thinking maybe dehydrated a bit. Plus, i ate a bagel and cream cheese just an hour before... I'll see what happens next time.

Nov 17, 2009

Oct 27, 2009

When I was a young teen, my siblings were old teens and when my parents were out, the party was often on at our house. My oldest sister introduced me to my first beer. Generic. A white can, black letters BEER. I thought it was awful, but gulped it down. I was cool too, right? I can see myself sitting in the blue floral chair (where did that chair go? my other sister had it in that Berkeley den of hers years ago... hmmm...?), orange shag on the floor, doing my best to chug along with the rest.

A few years years later she would introduce another... 'substance', right there in the laundry room. She was home from her travels for the holidays and suggested that this would help us get through Christmas Eve mass. Looking back, not sure that it did, perhaps it made me a bit more anxious for mass to get over with, my heart racing and ready for the traditional Christmas Eve opening of one family gift... what else might my sister have in store for me? My older and well traveled sister, knowledgeable in the ways of young twenty-somethings, while I was still a lowly teen trying to fight my way through high school...

This is what I'm thinking about this blustery afternoon as I smell the homemade chocolate chip cookies (mmm, butter, sugar...) baking away. How many can I eat before the kids get home? Could I cover up the odor of the chocolate goodness somehow? They'll never know if I can mask the odor and hide the cookies... I could keep them all to myself!

See, back in the day, I would burn toast around the house to mask the odors of my sister and her parties. How I thought that up- don't know? I cleaned up vomit, cleaned up alcohol spills, masked the odors traveling through our house by burning different substances that what had been burned before. One time I remember some of the friends streaking down the street and trying to decide what best to do with their leftover clothes...

The connection? Drugs of being responsible, legal drugs... chocolate, sugar, butter... better fat than stoned... And thinking about hording them for myself, masking the odors of freshly baked goodness, so that I can get away with the crime. Odd connections...Fleeting thoughts...

My kids will be thrilled we have homemade cookies- maybe I'll throw them in the car for when I pick them up at school- it'll make their day!